Cambridge man gets house arrest for one-punch knockout
It started as a consensual fight between two men.
It ended with one man knocked unconscious and the other charged with aggravated assault.
The pair, both drunk, got into a fight last Sept. 3 at night outside a bar in the Gaslight District on Grand Avenue South in Cambridge.
When a security guard intervened, the man punched the other man once in the face. He fell to the ground, striking his head on concrete.
The victim was unconscious for a few seconds and taken to hospital with a brain bleed, Kitchener court was told Thursday. The court was not updated on his condition.
The assailant, 59, of Cambridge was charged with aggravated assault but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of assault causing bodily harm and was sentenced to 60 days of house arrest followed by 30 days on a curfew. The sentence was recommended by Crown prosecutor Cassandra Wolff and defence lawyer Sean Safa.
“It is only good fortune that (he) is not here on a much more serious and tragic outcome,” said Justice Frances Brennan.
“Every day the courts hear of cases where a punch to the head leads to long-term coma, longterm brain damage and even fatality.”
Safa agreed.
“It’s not lost on him that the brain bleed could have led to his death,” he said. “He would have been in custody waiting for a trial in a homicide.”
The assailant and victim apparently did not know each other. The man who threw the punch fled after the assault but was arrested nearby.
He apologized in court to the victim. He got credit for pleading guilty, sparing the victim from having to testify at a trial.
The man has a prior record for impaired driving and uttering threats. He is an alcoholic, but has taken counselling and stopped drinking since the assault.
Brennan ordered him to abstain from alcohol during the 90-day sentence, continue counselling and give a DNA sample for the national database. The judge put him on probation for one year and handed him a three-year weapons ban.
“I hope, sir, that today is your very last day in a criminal court,” Brennan told him. “I wish you the best of luck moving forward and I hope that the counselling is of great benefit to you.”